Cities That May Never Host the Winter Olympics Again Because of Climate Change

The 1980 Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid were famous for the U.S. hockey team’s victory over the heavily favored Soviet Union squad in the semifinal game, and Eric Heiden’s as-yet unmatched five gold medals in speed skating. Swedish skier Ingemar Stenmark won the giant slalom and the slalom, and Hanni Wenzel of tiny Liechtenstein accomplished the same feat in the women’s races. This OIympiad, the second one held at Lake Placid (after 1932), also marked the first time artificial snow was used to try and produce optimum conditions for the athletes.

Norway was lauded worldwide for its hospitable hosting of the XVII Winter Olympiad, the second time the Nordic nation had hosted the winter event (the 1952 Games were centered in Oslo). Norwegian Johann Olav Koss won three speed-skating events, setting a world record in each one. Vreni Schneider of Switzerland won three medals in Alpine skiing, and Manuela Di Centa of Italy took home medals in all five cross-country events. These Olympics were also known for the figure-skating controversy surrounding Tonya Harding of the U.S., who tried to sabotage rival Nancy Kerrigan by hiring a man to injure her during the U.S. Nationals. Kerrigan eventually won a silver medal in Lillehammer anyway and Harding finished eighth.

These were the second Winter Olympics held in Japan, 26 years after the Winter Olympiad was held in Sapporo. Russian cross-country skier Larisa Lazutina won five medals, the most of any athlete, including three golds. Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie earned four medals, including three gold. Ski jumper Kazuyoshi Funaki from the host country won two gold medals and one silver. Figure skater Tara Lipinski of the U.S. became the youngest champion in Olympic history at the age of 15 years and 255 days.

The XX Winter Olympics in Turin marked the second time the event had been held in Italy (the 1956 Winter Games were in Cortina d’Ampezzo). There were new events at this Olympiad, such as speed skating team pursuit, mass-start biathlon races, and snowboard cross. Austrian skiers won 14 total medals, including gold medals in the women’s downhill and super-G by Michaela Dorfmeister. Michael Greis of Germany took home three gold medals in the biathlon events. Canadian Cindy Klassen was the star in speed skating, collecting five medals – one gold, two silver, and two bronze.

In 1976, Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics for the second time in 12 years. The most enduring memory from this Olympiad was of Austrian skier Franz Klammer careering almost out of control in the downhill to win the gold medal for the host country. Rosi Mittermaier of West Germany captured two of the three Alpine skiing events. The Olympics marked the debut of ice dancing as a medal event, and it was dominated by the Soviet Union.

Chamonix, France, hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924 as 16 teams and 260 athletes convened in the town in the French Alps. Finland’s Clas Thunberg dominated five speed-skating events, winning five medals, including three golds. The Canadian hockey team outscored the opposition, 122-3, enroute to the gold medal.

The Winter Games were held in France for the second time in the politically volatile year of 1968 (the previous time was in 1924, when the first-ever Winter Games were held in Chamonix). Norway won the most medals, the first time a country other than the Soviet Union had accomplished that feat since the USSR started competing at the Winter Olympiad in 1956. Gender tests for women were introduced at the Grenoble event, as were doping monitors for men and women. French skier Jean-Claude Killy won the three Alpine events and Eugenio Monti helmed his two-man and four-man bobsleds to gold-medal glory for Italy.

Norway, considered the birthplace of skiing, hosted its first Winter Olympics in 1952, and won the most medals that year with 16. Norwegian speed skater Hjalmar Andersen won three gold medals. Andrea Mead Lawrence of the United States took gold in the women’s giant slalom and slalom events.

This was the only Olympiad held in the former Yugoslavia, eight years before the civil war tore apart the Balkan peninsula. The 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo were famous for the performance of Marja-Liisa Kirvesmiemi-Hämäläinen from Finland. She won all three women’s cross-country skiing events. Karin Enke of East Germany captured four medals – two gold and two silver – in speed skating. Gunde Anders Svan of Sweden snagged four medals in cross-country skiing, two of them gold.

The second Winter Olympic Games held in the United States (the first was in 1932 in Lake Placid) got off to an uncertain start. For the only time in Olympic competition, the bobsled event was not held because the organizing committee would not build a bobsled run since only nine nations agreed to take part. Finnish cross-country skier Veikko Hakulinen won individual medals in two events and anchored the Finns’ relay team to gold. The Soviet Union led in the overall medal count with 21. The Games also marked the first time the U.S. hockey team won the gold medal.

The Winter Olympics held in Vancouver were noteworthy for the lack of snow because of an unusually mild winter in 2010. Organizers of the Games – the second to be held in Canada, after the 1988 Games in Calgary – had to truck in snow from higher elevations three hours away from the Olympic sites. The Vancouver Games featured the exploits of Chinese short-track speed skater Meng Wang, who won three gold medals. Other performances of note included Petter Northug, who won four medals in cross-country representing Norway.

Germany hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics in 1936 – in Berlin in the former case, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the latter. On the ice, Ivar Ballangrud of Norway ruled, winning three speed-skating golds and a silver medal. Great Britain pulled off one of the Winter Olympics greatest upsets by winning the ice hockey gold medal. (Some of the players were actually residents of Canada.) Sonja Henie of Norway won her third straight Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating. She would be among the first athletes from the Winter Olympics to leverage her accomplishments to gain fame and financial reward as a professional skater and film star.

“Ga-Pa,” as it is nicknamed, was tapped to host the Games again in 1940 after Sapporo, Japan, was knocked out of the running due to the Second Sino-Japanese War and its replacement, St. Moritz, Switzerland, was disqualified after the International Olympics Committee denied the Swiss request to allow professional ski instructors to compete. But Hitler invaded Poland shortly before the Olympics were to begin, so the Winter Games were canceled that year.

It wasn’t until 2014 that this nation so strongly associated with winter and winter sports would host its first Winter Olympics – in Sochi, a resort city on the Black Sea. A report from climate.com before the Olympics said Sochi would be one of the warmest cities to have ever hosted a Winter Olympics, with an overnight low in February of 39 degrees Fahrenheit and a daytime high of 50 degrees. The stars of the Sochi Games were Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst who won five medals, including two golds; Victor An of Russia, who grabbed four short-track speed-skating medals, including three golds; and Darya Domracheva of Belarus, who captured three golds in the biathlon.